Hinge.

This invention relates to a hinge for pivotally securing a door to a furniture or the like.

Heretofore, there has been known as a hinge of this type a so-called one-touch hinge in which a socket attached to the hanging base of a door and a hinge body associated with a movable plate for movably adjusting a door attaching position longitudinally and laterally, etc. are rotatably openably coupled by one or more arms, etc. to a hinge member, and a plate member attached to the inner surface of a side plate of a box body is detachably connected.

Typical hinges are disclosed at present in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 500601/1987, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 154175/1987, and Japanese Patent Laid-open NO. 121288/1987.

The detachability of the above-mentioned various hinges, i.e., the detachability of the hinge member to the plate member can be largely sorted to two ways.

The one way is, as shown in Figs. 8(A) and 8(B), constructed that a hinge member a and a plate member b are engaged at the front end c or the rear end d, pivotally rotated at the end as a center, and both as then locked. The other way is, as shown in Fig. 9, constructed in such a manner that a hinge member a is slid parallel to a plate member b (or the hinge member a is inserted into the plate member b, or the plate member b is inserted to the hinge member a) to be locked.

In the hinge constructed as described above, a pair of engaging mechanism e and a detaching mechanism f are respectively provided at the front ends c or the rear ends d of the hinge member a and the plate member b.

In the conventional hinge as constructed above, if the front ends of the plurality of hinge members a attached to a door is not simultaneously latched to the plate members b (in Fig. 8) or is not simultaneously slid to be attached (Fig. 9), an unreasonable force is applied to the hinge itself in case of attaching it, thereby damaging it or the other hinge or hinges cannot be attached thereto at all.

In other words, in the hinge with the slide lock as shown in Fig. 9, a plurality of hinge members a,.., attached to a door g must be always attached simultaneously to a plurality of plate members b,.., attached to the attaching member h of the door g, such as a box, etc., as shown in Figs. 10 to 12. In this case, as illustrated in Fig. 10, if the attaching pitches p of the hinge member a and the plate member b are wide, they can be forcibly attached, but if the attaching pitches p of the members a and b are narrow, as illustrated in Fig. 11, they cannot be attached until they are simultaneously inserted.

Thus, a plurality of the hinge members a,.. and the plate members b,.. must be simultaneously attached. In case of a large door or a door with a number of hinges, there are drawbacks that its initial attachment of the hinge to the door is not only extremely complicated, but the attachment takes a long time and a heavy labor.

These drawbacks are more or less also incorporated in a hinge of turning lock type shown in Figs. 8(A) and 8(B).

That is, as shown in Fig. 12, in case of a door with three hinges, when two upper hinges are attached, the door g is thereby fixed to some extent. Thus, the last one hinge is hardly attached, or, as further shown in Fig. 13, the engaging mechanism 3 of the hinge member a is obstructed by the upper protrusion i of the engaging mechanism 3 of the plate member b to be impossible to be attached. Accordingly, even in this case, the engaging mechanisms e, e of both the members a and b must be latched in advance.

Even when any one of the plurality of hinges of the door is damaged and must be replaced with new one, the engaged section or sliding section is not disengaged even though only one hinge is intended to be solely removed. Thus, the one hinge cannot be removed, and all the hinges must be eventually simultaneously detached.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a one-touch hinge which can eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and in which a hinge member and a plate member can be easily attached from any direction of wide range, can be positively attached, can also be simply detached, and the sole hinge can be also attached and detached.

In order to achieve the above and other objects, there is provided as claimed in claim 1 according to the present invention a hinge having a hinge member including a socket attached to a door and a hinge body so coupled rotatably openably through arms, and a plate member detachably connected to the hinge member to be attached to the attaching member of the door comprising latches provided at least at the front and rear portions of either the hinge member or the plate member, and a locking member having hook portions formed with latch pieces for detachably latching the latches by connecting portions formed corresponding to the members at the front and rear portions of the other member to be longitudinally slidably and urged forward by a spring in such a manner that the ends of the latch pieces of the latches are formed on oblique surfaces thereof to lower toward the forward direction thereof.

There is also provided as claimed in claim 2 according to the present invention a hinge as claimed in claim 1, wherein the locking member is longitudinally slidably by a lever, and urged forward by a spring provided at the lever.

In the case of the hinge according to the present invention, when the hinge member attached to the door is pressed at an arbitrary angle from the front or from a wide range, such as a perpendicular direction to the plate member attached to the attaching member of the door, two front and rear latch pins are projected to the oblique surfaces of the ends of the latch pieces, the locking member urged forward by the spring is slid rearward against the tension of the spring, the two latch pins are engaged with the front and rear hook portions, the locking member is simultaneously slid forward by the spring, the latches are latched to the hook portions, both the members are locked, and the locking member is always applied by a force to hold it in a locking state by the spring. Thus, both the members are not released from locking.

When the locking member is slid rearward in the locking state by using a screwdriver or pliers against the tension of the spring or rotating the lever by the end of the finger in a predetermined direction as claimed in claim 2, the latches are released from locking, the hinge member can be removed from the plate member, and the hinge member can be detached by the rotating trace of the hinge body at the socket as a center in the door opening state.

The above and other related objects and features of the invention will be apparent from a reading of the following description of the disclosure found in the accompanying drawings and the novelty thereof pointed out in the appended claims. <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li>Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of a hinge according to the present invention;</li><li>Fig. 2 is a perspective view partly cut out showing the assembling state of the embodiment;</li><li>Fig. 3 is a lateral cross-sectional view showing the used state of the embodiment;</li><li>Figs. 4 and 6 are plan views showing the detachability of a plate member and a hinge member of the embodiment;</li><li>Figs. 5(A) and 5(B) are plan views showing the locked state and the unlocked state of the plate member of the embodiment;</li><li>Figs. 7(A) and 7(B) are lateral cross-sectional plan views showing the locked state and the unlocked state of the other embodiment of a hinge according to the present invention;</li><li>Figs. 8(A) and 8(B) and 9 are plan views schematically showing the detachability of a conventional one-touch hinge;</li><li>Figs. 10, 11, 12 and 13 are front explanatory views showing the attached states of conventional one-touch hinge.</li></ul>

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 3, hinge member means 1 comprises a socket 2, a hinge body 3, and a movable plate 4.

More specifically, the socket 2 and the front end of the hinge body 3 are pivotally connected openably by rotating through two bent arms 5 and 6 by pins 7, 7 and 8, 8, and the socket 2 and the hinge body 3 are urged by a spring, not shown, externally mounted on the shaft 9 of the hinge body 3 in opening or closing direction over the the dead point of the spring.

Further, the hinge body 3 and the movable plate 4 are formed in lateral cross-section in a similar form of substantially U-shape to be engaged with one another, inserted into a long hole 10 perforated longitudinally at the rear end of the top wall 3a of the hinge body 3, the hinge body 3 is further so secured to the movable plate 4 by a longitudinally adjusting and body clamping screw 12 to be screwed within the threaded hole 11 of the rear end of the movable plate 4 as to be movably adjustable in the longitudinal directions with respect to the movable plate 4, engaged with a threaded hole 13 protruded from the front end thereof at the top wall 3a of the hinge body 3, and the neck 14a of the end of a laterally adjusting screw 14 engaged slidably with a long groove 15 formed longitudinally is supported at the front end of the movable plate 4 by the forward and reverse movements of the screw 14 in such a manner that the hinge body 3 is movably adjustably in the lateral direction (lateral direction of the door) with respect to the movable plate 4.

Two latches 16, 17 are provided at the front and rear portions of the hinge member 1 formed as described above at the upper and lower sidewalls 4b, 4b of the movable plate 4.

Plate member means 18 comprises a plate 19 and a locking member 20 as compared with the hinge member means 1.

More particularly, the plate 19 is formed substantially in a box shape to be attached internally into the movable plate 4, and two engaging portions 21 and 22 are so provided near the front and rear ends of the upper and lower sidewalls 19b, 19b to be partly cut out at the top wall 19a of the plate 19 as to be detachably engaged with the latches 16, 17.

Here, the engaging portion 21 of the front end of both the engaging portions 21, 22 is formed planely in an L-shaped step cutout form, and so formed as to be freely engaged with the latch 16 in a range of approximately 90° to the forward direction from the lateral direction of the door, while the engaging portion 22 of the rear end is formed planely in a U-shaped recess form, and so formed as to be detachably in the lateral direction of the door.

On the other hand, the locking member 20 is formed in a U-shaped lateral cross-section to be formed in a long length in the longitudinal direction, and internally contained in the plate 19 to be slidable in the longitudinal directions.

The locking member 20 is provided long in the longitudinal directions with long holes 23, 23 and 24, 24 at the front and rear portions of the upper and lower sidewalls 20a, 20a thereof, and pins 25 and 26 mounted at the front and rear portions of the upper and lower sidewalls 19b, 19b of the plate 19 are respectively inserted into the long holes 23, 23 and 24, 24. Thus, the locking member 20 is so associated with the plate 19 as to be slidable in the longitudinal directions with respect to the plate 19 in a range of the effective lengths of the long holes 23, 23 and 24, 24.

Receptacles 27 and 28 detachably latched by the latches 16, 17 are respectively formed at the front and rear portions of the upper and lower sidewalls 20a, 20b of the locking member 20.

The receptacles 27 of the front ends of both the receptacles 27 and 28 are opened forward by recessly cutting rearwardly the front ends of the sidewalls 20a, 20a, and the receptacles 28 of the rear ends are opened obliquely forward by cutting out the sidewalls 20a, 20b, and engaged with the latches 16, 17 by introducing the latches 16, 17 from the forward or obliquely forward direction to engage them with the receptacles.

Latch pieces 27a, 28a extended obliquely at an arbitrary angle from the upper and lower sidewalls 20a, 20a are formed forward at both the receptacles 27, 28, the latches 16, 17 can be engaged with the latch pieces 27a, 28a, and the latch pieces 27a, 28a are so formed at the ends thereof to be oblique faces 27b, 28b to move down (in the direction to approach the attaching member of the door) toward the forward direction that the locking member 20 is rearwardly movable by the latches 16, 17 as will be described later.

Oblique faces 28c which obliquely rise toward the forward direction are formed at the front edges of the rear receptacles 28, when the locking member 20 is slid rearward, the latch 17 is raised by the oblique face 28c to easily remove the hinge member means 1 from the plate member means 18.

Further, a lever 29 is so pivotally secured internally to the rear of the locking member 20 as to be rotatable at the pin 26.

The lever 29 is latched at one end thereof to the plate 19 and at the other end to the lever 29 to be urged clockwise as in Fig. 3 by a spring 30 externally attached to the pin 26.

Further, latch pieces 29a and operation pieces 29b are radially extended from the lever 29, the latch pieces 29a are engaged as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3 with the engaging holes 20d opened at the bottom wall 20c of the locking member 20, and the locking member 20 is always elastically urged forward by the spring 30.

The lever 29 is so extended with the operation pieces 29b from the plate 19 and the locking member 20 rearward as to move rearward the locking member 20 by engaging the end of a finger to the operation pieces 28b and rotating it against the tension of the spring 30.

The hinge member means 1 is attached to the door by engaging the socket 2 with a recess 31a formed on the inner surface of the hanging base of the door 31 and clamping it with a clamping screw.

On the other hand, the plate member means 18 is attached to a door attaching member 32 by clamping with clamping screws the plate 19 to the inner surface of the side plate of the door attaching member 32, and the hinge member means 1 is detachably connected to the plate member means 18 to openably attach the door 31 to the opening of the door attaching member 32.

Fig. 4 shows an available example of attaching the hinge member means 1 of the hinge to the plate member means 18. In this case, the hinge member means 1 can be attached from any direction as shown in Figs. 4(A), 4(B) and 4(C). Further, the hinge member means 1 can also be attached similarly to that of the conventional example in Fig. 8(A) as described above.

Figs. 5(A) and 5(B) show the locking state and the unlocking state of the plate member means 18 of the hinge.

The locking member 20 is so applied by a forward force by the spring 30 as to be always locking state.

In the locking state in Fig. 5(A), when two latches 16, 17 attached to the movable plate 4 are pressed from the direction shown in Fig. 4 toward the engaging portions 21, 22 and the receptacles 27, 28, the latches 16, 17 are first collided with the oblique faces 27b, 28b, and the locking member 20 is further moved rearward by the elastic tension of the spring 30 by the pressing force. Thus, the latches 16, 17 are engaged with the engaging portions 21, 22, the locking member 20 is simultaneously forwardly recovered by sliding by the spring 30, the latches 16, 17 are latched by the latch pieces 27a, 28a of the receptacles 27, 28 to prevent them from being removed, thereby locking the hinge member means 1 to the plate member means 18.

When the hinge member means 1 is removed, the lever 29 is pivotally rotated in a direction of an arrow K in Fig. 5 to reversely move the locking member 20, thereby unlocking the latches 16, 17. Here, it is noted that the locking member 20 may be, of course, slid rearwardly against the elastic tension of the spring 30 by using a screwdriver or pliers without using the lever 29.

Fig. 6 shows the example of detaching the hinge member means 1 at the plate member means 18, thereby solely attaching or detaching the hinge.

Figs. 7(A) and 7(B) show another embodiment of a hinge according to the present invention.

In the embodiment described above, the locking member 20 is slidably associated with the plate member means 18. On the other hand, in this embodiment, the locking member 20 is slidably associated with the movable plate 4 at the hinge member means 1. As compared with the embodiment described above, the locking member 20 is inverted upside down, and the arrangement and the operation of this embodiment is substantially the same as those in the previous embodiment except that the disposition of the spring 30 and the latches 16, 17 are provided at the plate member means 18. In Figs. 7(A) and 7(B), reference numeral 33 designates a pin attached to the locking member 20, numeral 34 denotes a pin attached to the movable plate 4 similarly to the pin 25. These pins 25, 34 are movably engaged within the long holes 23, 23 and 24, 24 of the locking member 20, and the spring 30 is connected between the pins 23 and 34.

According to the hinge constructed as described above, at least two latches attached to either the plate member or the hinge member can be simultaneously attached to or detached from the corresponding latches of the locking member attached to the other in the one-­touch hinge having the hinge member attached to the door and the plate member attached to the door attaching member detachably connected to the hinge member. Therefore, the hinge member means 1 is, for example, attached to or detached from the plate member means detachably as shown in Fig. 6. Thus, the hinges of the upper and lower positions are detachably attached as shown in Fig. 4 in the door using a number of hinges, the hinge disposed therebetween can be attached detachably by the rotation as shown in Fig. 6. Consequently, in particular case of a large door using a number of hinges, the attaching works of the hinges can be remarkably simply accelerated as compared with the conventional example.

In case of detaching the hinges, the desired hinge to be repaired or replaced can be solely removed, and the hinges can be very conveniently removed from this features.